Yours, mine, and ours

I love seeing your versions of my designs!

Donna Reed from San Tan Valley, AZ  sent me a picture of the quilt she made from my Welcome Home book published by Kansas City Star.  She says, "I've wanted for so long to make a saltbox house quilt, now it's hanging up at my house !  Yea.  Thank you so much for the designs, loved the houses.  I did change it somewhat, hope you don't mind." 

 No, Donna, I don't mind at all if you change the pattern.  

That way, it becomes your own.

And it looks gorgeous!

Lu Ann Leonard wrote, "I love your book, At Home with Country Quilts (published by Martingale) and decided to use one of the patterns to make a wedding quilt for my niece and her new husband.
I chose to make "Starry Nights in Winter", but made it one row longer. Instead of doing appliqué the whole way around the quilt, I chose the appliqué for "Scrappy Squares". This also worked well, because it had hearts in the design. Anyway, they loved the  quilt and I thought that I would enclose a few pictures (I apologize for the poor lighting). Oh, and I hand quilted it! Yikes! Finished 2 days before the wedding :)"
 

 I love how Lu Ann combined two of my patterns into one quilt.

Didn't it turn out great?

What a labour of love and a wonderful gift to the newlyweds!

Keep those pictures coming!

They inspire me to keep doing what I do.

Thank you all!

A Quilty Event--more fun in Kansas City!

Kansas City Star Publishers have their offices just blocks from the Convention Center in Kansas City where Quilt Market was held last weekend. They invited their authors and shop owners who sell their books to attend "A Quilty Event", celebrating their involvement in the quilting industry. The reception included a display of over 150 quilts from their books. Oh my, the eye candy!  What a thrill to see these gorgeous quilts in person!

 Like these from Barb Adams:

Celebration of American Life,

 Peppermint and Holly,

 

 Love Letters,

 

 Garden Glow,

 

  and Trick or Treat.
From Alma Allen:

Feather Your Nest

and No Place Like Home.

 From Maggie Bonanomi:

 

 O'Bed

 and Buttonwood bedcovers. 

From Linda Brannock:

 American Beauty.

From Betsy Chutchian:

 Hourglass.

From Lynda Hall:

 A Little Porch Time.

From Bonnie Hunter:

Pineapple Crazy.

 

 (Look at the size of those pieces!)
From Edie McGinnis:

Bird in a Cherry Tree.

From Jan Patek:

 

Across the Wide Missouri

and We Gather Together.
From Jeanne Poore:

 Star Steppin'.
From Laurie Simpson:

Victory Girls.
And this designer's work looks vaguely familiar...

my Welcome Home quilt.

 Barbara Brackman contributed this quilt:

Death Becomes Her.
(Warning: if you're a Sunbonnet Sue fan, you might find the following blocks offensive!
I, personally find them hilarious--but then, I do have a bent sense of humour.)

 

 

 Doug Weaver, Publisher of Kansas City Star, welcomed us to the reception.

after which, we wined and dined.

A wonderful evening!

If you want to learn more about this amazing company, click on this link.

Time for a Giveaway!!

Look what arrived in the mail today!

I'm thrilled with how it turned out!

So I'd like to share my happiness with you by giving away an autographed copy.

If you're a follower, just leave a comment before Sunday, July 17th, at midnight.

I'll number the comments and pick a winner on Monday, the 18th.

If you're not a follower yet, you can sign up and then place your comment.

What can I say--ain't too proud to beg!

Good luck to all of you!

PS. Some of you have emailed me to say that Blogger isn't letting you leave a comment.

I've had this problem too on some other blogs--it's so frustrating!

I don't know why this happens but rest assured,

if you can't leave a comment, just email me and I'll make sure to put your name in the draw!

It's here!

Haven't received my copy yet
(thanks to striking Canada Post)

but Book #2 is published!
Here's the cover:

And you can get a sneak peek by clicking on this link:
 Welcome Home.

I'm a very proud mama!

What next?

Okay, let's get the not-so-good news out of the way first.  Hubby Ben had the nerve tests done on his arm yesterday and it appears there's been no healing. So learning to live with his damaged arm is likely our new reality and now we'll have to figure out the next step as far as his employment goes.  A scary thing to be facing when he's within a few years of retirement.  How life can change in a moment!

And now, some good news.  After my website disappeared without a trace into cyberspace a couple of months ago, it's finally back up and running again.  I signed on with a new host and rebuilt the thing from the ground up.  What a lot of work!  There's still some posting to be done but if you'd like to check out what I've done so far, here's the link: http://www.countryquilts.ca/.  What do you think of it?  As a little celebration present, I'm offering free shipping on any orders within the US and Canada placed from now to the end of January 2011!

Some more good news... I've designed another Block-of-the-Month pattern and Kansas City Star Books has agreed to publish it in book form later this year!  The pattern is called "Welcome Home" and features a lot of house blocks which I love.  I'll update you on the book's progress so stay tuned!

And finally, I've finished the little quilt project I started in my last post.  Here it is ready to be hand-quilted.

 And here it is, finished.

I enjoyed making it so much and there was so much extra fabric in the kit, I was able to make a second!

 I made this one without the woolen circles. 

 I can't decide which one I like better.  Which one gets your vote?